Genetically modified salmon not safe: activists

A handful of environmentalists and health advocates on Prince Edward Island are trying to stop the United States government from approving genetically modified salmon for the local food market.

Scientists with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released research this month that concluded salmon genetically modified by the company Aqua Bounty was safe to eat and not substantially different from other salmon.

Genetically modified salmon grow at twice the rate of normal salmon.

But environmentalists and health advocates on the Island disagree with the FDA'sresults.

They gathered Thursday outside the Aqua Bounty plant in Bay Fortune, P.E.I, where genetically modified salmon eggs are produced. They want to stop the salmon from getting to market.

"The science is sloppy; it's flawed," said community activist Leo Broderick. "And, therefore, the FDA must reject it."

The activists are concerned that not enough salmon were tested by the FDA or for a long enough period of time.

They're also worried that genetically modified salmon couldmix withwild fish populations and harm the latter.

"There is a small opportunity that the FDA may not give approval if the voices are strong enough from across the United States and Canada," Broderick said.

The FDA will be holding public hearings on the issueon Sunday and Monday in Maryland.

Broderick plans to go to the hearings to make his argument against genetically modified salmon.

Health Canada is just beginning its own independent testing of genetically modified salmon, but the P.E.I. activists areworried that if theU.S. approves it, Canada won't be far behind.

If Aqua Bounty salmon is approved by the FDA, it will be the first genetically engineered food animal on the market.

In P.E.I., there's debate among localfish consumerswhether modified salmon should be sold on the Island.

"I don't know," said Edythe Gillis, shopping at the Queen Street Co-Op in Charlottetown. "I like the real thing, I think. I'm not used to thoseimproved foods, as they call them."

Fellow P.E.I. resident Trevor LeClair said he can't see any problem with the genetically engineered fish.

"As long as we're able to establish that there's nothing particularly wrong with it, I can't see any safety reasons why not to, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy it," he said.